Canadian private equity fund acquires Britain's Busy Bees nursery chain
founded by ex-teacher John Woodward and his wife.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has bought British Busy Bees nursery chain with a view to expand the brand internationally.

Teachers' private equity division announced the acquisition of the nursery group - the biggest childcare provider in the UK -on Thursday for an undisclosed sum understood to be close to £220m.

The nursery chain with 213 outlets was founded in 1983 in Staffordshire by former teacher John Woodward and his wife who, despite pocketing millions of pounds from the sale, both remain on the management team with their co-founder and managing director Marg Randalls. They retain a significant minority share.

Teachers' bought the group from education company Knowledge Universe, which had previously owned a majority stake. The funds opened an office in Hong Kong earlier this month and plans to roll the Busy Bees brand out in Asia and Europe.

Jo Taylor, head of London for Teachers', said: "Busy Bees will make more acquisitions in both the UK and abroad. We're interested in exporting the brand anywhere with expat communities and think there are opportunities in Europe possibly through a combined offering with another operator, maybe one that does education but not daycare.

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"Teachers' is pleased to partner with the UK's market leader in the childcare sector. Busy Bees is an outstanding business with good growth potential. Busy Bees' proven management team has a record of quality and integrity. We look forward to supporting their efforts to make its childcare services more widely available through developing new locations and acquiring other facilities," he said.

Teachers’ has C$129.5bn (£77bn) of assets under its control and invests on behalf of 303,000 retired and current workers in Canada’s education system. The fund owns Scandinavian sportswear brand Helly Hansen, and is also in the market for healthcare acquisitions in the UK market and consumer businesses, having previously looked at five-a-side football operator Goals.

Its current interests in the UK include the national lottery operator Camelot as well as holdings in HSBC, Shell and Alliance Boots.